(CNSNews.com) – The California Legislature passed a controversial bill Wednesday which creates a new crime by criminalizing the distribution of secret recordings of confidential communication with a health care provider.

The bill defines confidential communication as “any communication carried on in circumstances that reasonably indicate that any party to the communication desires it to be confined to the parties thereto.” It is already illegal in California to make recordings without the consent of all parties.

The bill was strongly advocated by Planned Parenthood following a series of undercover videos released last summer by theCenter for Medical Progress, which claimed that the organization was unlawfully trafficking in fetal tissue.

“With the Internet and the tremendous wildfire nature in which news can be spread now through social media, we need to have a crime against distribution by those in particular who did the illegal recording,” Parker said. “A slap on the hand of a $2,500 fine isn’t sufficient.”

State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) introduced the bill, commenting, “The nation is looking to California to take the lead on protecting access to care and to the doctors who provide that access. This measure will protect reproductive health doctors from violence and intimidation.”

However, state Sen. Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) said the bill unduly protects “an industry that destroys life” and the legislature is “rushing to ensure that [reproductive health doctors] can operate in secrecy.”

The bill met with some unlikely opponents, including the LA Times Editorial Board and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who raised concerns about the legislation’s potential impact on whistleblowers.Keep reading